Rams News

Rams follow familiar script:
mistakes and turnovers
09/06 03:58 PM

By Jim Thomas
Of the Post-Dispatch Staff

The answer seemed plain as the dark blue shirts worn by the Rams' designated inactive players Sunday -- the ones in street clothes on the sidelines of the Trans World Dome. But Dick Vermeil refused to concede what seemed painfully obvious.
Can Vermeil honestly tell the 56,943 in attendance, most of whom combined to spend millions in PSL money to bring the Rams here, that he put his best team on the field Sunday?
``Obviously, or I would have gone the other way,'' Vermeil said, without blinking. ``Right now, it doesn't look like it. We obviously did what we thought was best for the football team.''
On Sunday, that thought process included sitting out Greg Hill and Robert Holcombe, who looked for all the world like the team's two best running backs in the preseason. Or at least two of the top three along with Jerald Moore.
``We've seen Jerald Moore run,'' Vermeil said. ``Last game of the season last year, he ran for over 100 yards. He was nominated for the game ball. And he's run well when we've played him, and emphasized him, in the preseason. But when you fumble the ball. . . .''
Moore, a hard-running, plain-speaking kind of guy, fumbled three times Sunday in the Rams' season opener. One of three handed the Saints seven points in what was a seven-point victory -- 24-17 -- for New Orleans.
``It's basically a nightmare,'' Moore said. ``I never even dreamed of having a day like this.''
When Vermeil finally decided to sit a shellshocked Moore after fumble No. 3 in the third quarter, he had only 1997 practice squad player June Henley in uniform among his every-down running backs. In a stunning move, Vermeil decided Friday to designate Hill and Holcombe among the Rams' seven inactive players for the game.
(Under league rules, teams are allowed 53 players on their regular-season roster, but can dress only 46 on game day.)
``I really, sincerely believed we'd run the ball better than we did,'' Vermeil said.
Moore carried 15 times for 31 yards. Henley carried three times for 5 yards.
``We had a running back,'' Todd Lyght said, in a sarcastic slam at team management, specifically the Rich Brooks-Steve Ortmayer regime. ``He's gone. Jerome Bettis was here. Why is he gone? He's running for a thousand yards for the Pittsburgh Steelers.''
But back to the present. It took exactly four offensive plays for Vermeil's bizarre decision on Hill and Holcombe to jump up and bite him.
On Moore's second carry of the game -- the first play of the Rams' second possession -- he was hit by Saints defensive tackle La'Roi Glover and fumbled. St. Louisan Joe Johnson scooped up the ball at the Rams' 5 from his defensive end position and pranced into the end zone for a touchdown just 2 minutes 53 seconds into the game.
The Rams had begun the possession on their 10-yard line compliments of a holding penalty against London Fletcher on a Saints punt.
The Rams were penalized early and often. They finished with 10 penalties for 105 yards. They got snookered on a trick play for a Saints touchdown. They let a rookie tight end, Cam Cleeland, average more than 20 yards on four receptions.
Despite those grueling hours on the practice field and time spent in the meeting rooms in Macomb and at Rams Park in July and August, the Rams looked very much like the 5-11 outfit of a year ago.
Saints halfback Lamar Smith bamboozled the Rams with a 20-yard halfback pass to a W-I-D-E open Andre Hastings for a TD and a 14-0 lead with 4:13 to go in the opening quarter. The Rams were in zone coverage on the play, and Rams cornerback Dexter McCleon -- who otherwise played well -- was supposed to be in the area. But he was supposed to have safety help, too. Nobody was there.
Doug Brien booted a 36-yard field goal to make it 17-0 early in the the second quarter, and then Smith jitterbugged his way through a grasping Rams defense with 5:02 to play in the second quarter, turning a short completion from Saints quarterback Billy Joe Hobert into a 35-yard touchdown.
The crowd was so disgusted at this point, they actually started chanting as each missed tackle on Smith's run was replayed on the twin TWA scoreboards. The count reached ``Four!'' before Smith crossed the goal line to give New Orleans a 24-0 lead with 4:45 left in the first half.
``We just killed ourselves basically,'' Lyght said.
To their credit, the Rams managed to make a game of it. Moore scored on a 1-yard run -- falling on his second fumble in the end zone -- to trim the New Orleans lead to 24-7 with 55 seconds left in the first half.
The Rams marched 74 yards on their first possession of the second half, recovering a third Moore fumble and then overcoming a 10-yard penalty to score on a 15-yard pass from Tony Banks to Eddie Kennison.
Was a dramatic comeback in the making? Almost. The Rams tacked on a 34-yard field goal by Jeff Wilkins with 1:30 to play, and then had a first down on the New Orleans 35 with 14 seconds to play on a 23-yard Banks-to-Ricky Proehl completion.
Banks dropped back for one last shot at the end zone with 5 seconds to play. But he never launched the pass, getting sacked by Glover to end the game.
``I just took too much time,'' Banks said. ``There's no excuse for that. I've got to at least get it off to give guys a chance to make that play.''
Too little. Too late. Strikingly reminiscent of last season, when the Rams were 2-7 in games decided by eight points or fewer. Only this time, it came against the lowly Saints, a team the Rams had beaten in their four previous meetings.
``I'm devastated,'' Vermeil said. ``And I think some players are devastated.''

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